069: Four One-Liners That Change Everything

Greg and Geoff Surratt are church planters who have been involved in leading and planting many churches in the United States and beyond, including Seacoast Church in South Carolina. They were recently in the UK leading a training day on multisite church, and in this episode of the podcast Tom O’Toole shares a few of the key one-liners that he took away from the event.

Not Everything That You Label as Bad Really Is

SeaCoast spent a lot of money on land, and then the rules were changed so they couldn’t build on it. Though this seemed bad, it forced them to explore other options and has ultimately proved to be beneficial.

We are not God and so do not see things from his perspective – we don’t know what good he will bring through seeming setbacks.

“God was at work on a solution, before we even knew it was a problem.”

In church planting emotions can swing wildly from week to week. We need to realise that it is a long game and have faith that God is at work.

You Are Capable of More Than You Think

Church planters can often be held back by what they think they lack (e.g. leaders, musicians, kids workers).

“Everything you need, God has planted – either in the church or in the harvest.”

This means looking at people differently, like Jesus did with Simon Peter.

“Don’t look at people, lookthrough them to what they can become.”

Christ Church Manchester talks about a ‘Have a Go’ culture and makes a point of giving opportunities to a lot of people – there is a low bar for entry but a high bar in training and developing people.

High Impact, Low Regret

They took an approach to financial commitment that could have a big impact if it worked but the cost would be quite low if it didn’t.

This is a principle the can be applied to lots of areas of church life.

People Will Support a World That They Helped to Create

It is important that key people in a church plant are involved in recruiting, and determining the vision and strategy.

People don’t just want to follow a vision, they want to be involved in shaping something – and this will bring much greater levels of commitment.